Rabelais and His World

This is simply the best analysis of the "Carnivalesque" and is a valuable preface to Rabelais' novel itself. Bakhtin's book alerts the reader of Rabelais to his (Rabelais') masterful use of language and explores the sources of medieval popular culture that served his purposes. I have enjoyed Rabelais with much deeper understanding having first read Bakhtin.Bakhtin and Rabelais both negotiated cultural minefields to produce their works. Both deserve to be more widely read.

Good theory, if you're into it.

Take your time with this academic book and you will be rewarded. It rediscovers the spirit of the Medieval carnival. The tradition stemmed from ancient Greek and Rome and its function was to give a vent to people's death fear and anger over social injustice. "Everything was allowed" and for a short period of time the social taboos were erased. Fools and prostitutes were "crowned" to embody Kings, Queens, Pope, saints, monks and nunns. And the chosen ones were mocked, ridiculed, assailed and beaten and stoned and "dethrowned" and "impeached." Is this tradition dead today? Think twice -- think David Letterman, Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien and especially Howard Stern, and you will be amazed to find astoundig parallels between the past and modern times.

A book for those who are seriously interested in Bakhtin's ideas: seeing how they develop from the idea of carnival and folk culture to the polyphonous, heteroglossic and dialogic imagination in his other works.

Mikhail Bakhtin first began "Rabelais and His World" in 1917 during the heady days of the Russian Revolution. Like some of the colleges of today, the University of St. Petersburg at the height of the Revolution boasted a flexible curriculum and encouraged free thought among its students. While the gunfire echoed in the streets, Bakhtin and his colleagues gathered to declare the Russian Revolution the "Third Renaissance". This comparison between the Italian Renaissance and the Russian Revolution inspired him to begin his dissertation on Rabelais. The events of the Revolution swept everyone up into the societal transitions. No one could just be a bystander. From this all-encompassing mood of social interaction arose Bakhtin's concept of the "theater without footlights". As for the significance of the individual in the Carnivalesque one has only to look to the Fool. Bakhtin considered his first reading of Friedrich Nietzsche an epiphany. The great German philosopher remained one of Bakhtin's most important influences throughout his writing career. The Fool, as an extension of the carnival, is the ultimate Nietzschean character. Able to move between worlds, he demonstrates the power of the individual to transcend societal norms. Bakhtin states, "the images of folk culture are absolutely fearless and communicate this fearlessness to all". The Fool is representative of this utopian ideal personified in the individual.